2001 NPB All-Star Game

The 2001 NPB All-Star Games featured three contests, and the Pacific League won twice while the Central League won the other one.

Game 1

Game 1 was held on July 21 at PayPay Dome in front of 31,848 fans. Yusaku Iriki and Satoshi Iriki became the first pair of brothers to pitch back-to-back in one All-Star game, but Yusaku got the loss. Kazuo Matsui was 3-for-4 with a solo homer to win the MVP, and Norihiro Nakamura also collected a solo shot in the first inning. The CL only scored on slugger Hideki Matsui's homer.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Central	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	7	0
Pacific	2	0	4	0	0	0	1	0	x	7	11	0

Players used

Central League Starting Lineup

1. Takuro Ishii, SS (Yokohama BayStars)
2. Toshihisa Nishi, 2B (Yomiuri Giants)
3. Tomoaki Kanemoto, LF (Hiroshima Carp)
4. Hideki Matsui, CF (Yomiuri))
5. Roberto Petagine, 1B (Yakult Swallows)
6. Akira Eto, 3B (Yomiuri)
7. Yoshinobu Takahashi, RF (Yomiuri)
8. Atsuya Furuta, C (Yakult)
9. Takanori Suzuki, DH (Yokohama)

• Yusaku Iriki, P (Yomiuri)

Backups Used

• Takuya Kimura, 2B (Hiroshima)
• Motonobu Tanishige, C (Yokohama)
• Kazuhiro Kiyohara, PH (Yomiuri)
• Mitsuru Manaka, PR (Yakult)
• Takahiro Saeki, 1B (Yokohama)
• Akinori Iwamura, 3B (Yakult)
• Hirokazu Ibata, SS (Chunichi Dragons)
• Atsunori Inaba, RF (Yakult)
• Satoshi Iriki, P (Yakult)
• Ken Takahashi, P (Hiroshima)
• Toshihide Narimoto, P (Hanshin Tigers)

Manager

• Shigeo Nagashima

Coaches

• Masaaki Mori
• Senichi Hoshino

Pacific League Starting Lineup

1. Kazuo Matsui, SS (Seibu Lions)
2. Yoshitomo Tani, CF (Orix BlueWave)
3. Tuffy Rhodes, LF (Kintetsu Buffaloes)
4. Norihiro Nakamura, 3B (Kintetsu)
5. Alex Cabrera, 1B (Seibu)
6. Nobuhiko Matsunaka, DH (Daiei Hawks)
7. Tadahito Iguchi, 2B (Daiei)
8. Koji Akiyama, RF (Daiei)
9. Kenji Johjima, C (Daiei)

• Tomohiro Kuroki, P (Chiba Lotte)

Backups Used

• Makoto Kosaka, 2B (Chiba Lotte Marines)
• So Taguchi, LF (Orix)
• Michihiro Ogasawara, 1B (Nippon Ham Fighters)
• Hiroki Kokubo, DH (Daiei)
• Noriyoshi Omichi, PH (Daiei)
• Hiroshi Shibahara, RF (Daiei)
• Dae-sung Koo, P (Orix)
• Shinichi Kato, P (Orix)
• Takehiro Hashimoto, P (Seibu)
• Rodney Pedraza, P (Daiei)

Manager

• Sadaharu Oh

Coaches

• Osamu Higashio
• Yasunori Oshima

Umpires

• Koichi Uemoto (Home), Koichi Tanba (1B), Atsushi Kittaka (2B), Kota Kawaguchi (3B), Katsumi Manabe (LF), Takeshi Nagami (RF)

Game 2

Game 2 took place at Yokohama Stadium July 22 with an attendance of 26,291. Roberto Petagine was 5-for-5 with a walk, 3 RBI and 3 runs scored to win the MVP. Takuro Ishii also collected 4 hits, and Hideki Matsui blasted a 2-run shot. The PL had more homers as Alex Cabrera, Kazuo Matsui, Norihiro Nakamura and So Taguchi each collected one. However, only Taguchi's long ball was not a solo shot, and the CL tied the series with their 23 hits.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Pacific	0	0	0	2	2	1	0	1	0	6	9	0
Central	0	0	5	1	0	2	4	0	x	12	23	0

Players used

Pacific League Starting Lineup

1. Kosaka, 2B
2. Taguchi, LF
3. K.Matsui, SS
4. Nakamura, 3B
5. Kokubo, DH
6. Ogasawara, 1B
7. Tatsuya Ide, CF (Nippon Ham)
8. Akiyama, RF
9. Takeshi Hidaka, C (Orix)

• Katsuhiko Maekawa, P (Kintetsu)

Backups Used

• Iguchi, 2B
• Matsunaka, PH
• Shibahara, PH
• Omichi, DH
• Tani, RF
• Cabrera, 1B
• Johjima, C
• Rhodes, PH
• Daisuke Matsuzaka, P (Seibu)
• Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, P (Nippon Ham)
• Soichi Fujita, P (Chiba Lotte)
• Koki Morita, P (Kintetsu)
• Akira Okamoto, P (Kintetsu)
• Masahide Kobayashi, P (Chiba Lotte)

Central League Starting Lineup

1. Ishii, SS
2. Ibata, 2B
3. Petagine, 1B
4. H.Matsui, CF
5. Eto, 3B
6. Suzuki, LF
7. Inaba, DH
8. Tanishige, C
9. Manaka, RF

• Koji Uehara, P (Yomiuri)

Backups Used

• Kiyohara, PH
• Nishi, 2B
• Kanemoto, PH
• Kimura, 2B
• Iwamura, 3B
• Y.Takahashi, RF
• Saeki, RF
• Furuta, DH
• Takeshi Nakamura, C (Chunichi)
• Shugo Fujii, P (Yakult)
• Kei Igawa, P (Hanshin)
• Hideki Okajima, P (Yomiuri)
• Takashi Saito, P (Yokohama)

Umpires

• Kawaguchi (Home), Kittaka (1B), Nagami (2B), Manabe (3B), Tanba (LF), Uemoto (RF)

Game 3

Game 3 took place at Sapporo Dome July 26 with an attendance of 37,322. Nakamura won the MVP as he blasted the game-winning, 2-run homer in the 3rd inning. Alex Cabrera and Kenji Johjima both homered, and Tuffy Rhodes was 2-for-3 with 2 runs scored. The CL had more homers as Yoshinobu Takahashi, Petagine and Hideki Matsui each blasted a solo shot, but the PL still took the series, again proving long balls are not everything.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Central	2	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	11	2
Pacific	3	0	2	2	0	1	0	3	x	8	11	0

Players used

Central League Starting Lineup

1. Y.Takahashi, RF
2. Ibata, SS
3. Petagine, DH
4. H.Matsui, CF
5. Kiyohara, 1B
6. Kanemoto, LF
7. Iwamura, 3B
8. Nakamura, C
9. Kimura, 2B

• Shigeki Noguchi, P (Chunichi)

Backups Used

• Nishi, 2B
• Manaka, RF
• Saeki, DH
• Inaba, RF
• Eto, 3B
• Furuta, C
• Ishii, SS
• Shinji Sasaoka, P (Hiroshima)
• Narimoto, P
• Hitoki Iwase, P (Chunichi)
• Hiroki Kuroda, P (Hiroshima)
• Eddie Gaillard, P (Chunichi)

Pacific League Starting Lineup

1. K.Matsui, SS
2. Tani, CF
3. Rhodes, LF
4. Nakamura, 3B
5. Cabrera, 1B
6. Kokubo, DH
7. Taguchi, RF
8. Iguchi, 2B
9. Johjima, C

• Ming-Chieh Hsu, P (Seibu)

Backups Used

• Ide, RF
• Matsunaka, DH
• Ogasawara, DH
• Akiyama, PH
• Kosaka, 2B
• Omichi, PH
• Hidaka, C
• Fujita, P
• Hisashi Ogura, P (Orix)
• Morita, P
• Hashimoto, P
• Koo, P
• Pedraza, P
• Kiyoshi Toyoda, P (Seibu)

Umpires

• Manabe (Home), Nagami (1B), Uemoto (2B), Tanba (3B), Kittaka (LF), Kawaguchi (RF)

Sources

• Japanese Wikipedia